They'd have to change it quite a lot to make a 2t difference a dealbreaker.

My understanding was that they wanted to tighten up the shift patterns a little bit, and since the largest rear cog has a couple more teeth, making the granny a 24t ring doesn't change the lowest gear ratio.

They'd have to change it quite a lot to make a 2t difference a dealbreaker.

My understanding was that they wanted to tighten up the shift patterns a little bit, and since the largest rear cog has a couple more teeth, making the granny a 24t ring doesn't change the lowest gear ratio.

I got that, front shifting between granny and middle rings was always a place to improve, but I don't really like the idea of 36t cog, too heavy (who says that, my all-purpose XC HT weighs 24lbs) and 24x36 is closer to 22x32, 22x34 is tangibly lower.

They may have shrunk the 10 speed FD cage since it only needs to handle 8T from granny to middle instead of 10T. If so you may have chain rub on the bottom of the cage when in your granny.

That's the other side of the question. From what I saw, I conclude that I can use newer FDs because they look like they can accommodate 24t with 44t, then it's possible to set up it a bit lower and one wouldn't use 1x9 gear where rubbing is possible.